Lucy Raymond eBook

But Stella soon roused from her “brown study,”
as she called it, by various questions as to Mrs.
Harris’s route of travel, and also as to her
travelling dress, which Lucy was very ill prepared
to answer, having cast hardly a passing glance at
it, in her sorrow for her teacher’s departure.
On their way home they overtook Mrs. Steele and Alick,
to whom were soon related the particulars of their
mission, Stella imitating Mrs. Connor’s tone
and manner to the life, as she graphically reproduced
the conversation, much to Alick’s amusement,
though he ground his teeth with indignation on hearing
of the violent treatment Nelly had received.

“What a woman! You mustn’t leave
the poor child to her tender mercies. What can
she turn out, brought up under such a termagant?
Suppose I try and bring the old lady round with a
little judicious flattery?”

“I think I can manage the matter,” said
Mrs. Steele. “I shall make a bargain with
Mrs. Connor, and promise to give her a day’s
work once a fortnight, provided she will let Nelly
come here for half an hour every day. But do
you think the child herself will be willing to come?”

“Oh, I’m sure she’ll be willing
to come where any one is kind to her, she has so little
kindness at home,” replied Lucy.

Mrs. Steele proved right. By her more judicious
management and substantial inducement, Mrs. Connor
was persuaded to give an ungracious assent to the
plan proposed for Nelly’s benefit. But,
as if to be as disagreeable as possible, even in consenting,
she fixed upon the time which Lucy would least have
chosen for the task. The only time when she could
spare Nelly, she said, was in the evening, after the
children were in bed. It was the time when Lucy
most enjoyed being out, watering her flowers, or taking
an evening walk, or row with the others. But
the choice lay between doing the work then, or not
at all; and when she thought how light was the task
given her to do, and how slight the sacrifice, she
felt ashamed of her inclination to murmur at it.

So Nelly’s education began with the alphabet;
and though it was a drudgery both for teacher and
pupil, reciprocal kindness and gratitude helped on
the task, and before many weeks had passed Nelly was
spelling words of two syllables, and had learned some
truths, at least, of far greater importance.

VII.

Temptations.

“Or rather help us,
Lord, to choose the good—­
To pray for naught,
to seek to none but Thee;
Nor by our ‘daily bread’
mean common food;
Nor say, ‘From
this world’s evil set us free.’”

The Sunday school was again assembled on another Sunday
afternoon, some weeks later. The day was even
warmer than the one on which our story opened, and
all the church windows were opened to their widest
extent, to admit every breath of air which came in
through the waving pine boughs. Lucy had been
promoted to teach a small class of her own, in which
Nelly Connor had willingly taken her place. She
was indeed advancing faster in spiritual than in secular
learning; for in the first she had the best of all
teachers, to whose teaching her simple heart was open—­the
Holy Spirit Himself.